An alternative
by AnonymousGirlNamedSally
Summary: At the end of "Order of the Phoenix": No member of the Order received the message that Harry & Co. were at the Ministry of Magic fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Only Dumbledore came to rescue them. Harry got expelled and because he can't go back to the Dursleys he has to live at Grimmauld Place with Sirius (who didn't die). I hope the story is way better than the summary.
1. Chapter 1

**At the beginning, just a little information what happened when Harry and the others tried to rescue Sirius at the end of 'The Order of the Phoenix' and what's different from the book. And please, if you spot a mistake or if you've problems to understand something, be so kind and just tell me.**

_Nobody of the Order got the hint that Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Luna and Neville were in the Ministry of Magic fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Dumbledore was the only one who came to help Harry and the others. Nobody got hurt or died, with the exception of Neville, who had bad luck and got his nose broken. Dumbledore managed to defeat Voldemort so he and his Death Eaters had to flee. _

_He then proceeded to take the kids back to the school but Fudge and a few others burst into the room and saw Harry disappearing. Fudge, who thought that Harry broke into the Ministry of Magic for no reason but rebellion against the system, had him expelled from school. Only because of Dumbledore's fast reaction Harry had the chance to escape and keep his wand. _

_Harry couldn't go back to live with the Dursleys, so Dumbledore decided it would be the best for him to go live at Grimmauld Place. Sirius, who never died because he stayed at home during that faithful night, was quiet happy at the beginning that he wasn't forced to live alone anymore, but soon got more and more grumpy for apparently no reason at all. _

_Lupin and Tonks were still in love with each other but Lupin didn't accept his feelings for her because of his fear of hurting Tonks, so she's still sad and moody._

The whole house was silent. Not even Kreacher's cursing could be heard through the thin walls and so it seemed that time stood still. Harry lay on his bed, bored and without any idea what he could do to end the boredom. Ron and Hermione back at Hogwarts were busy studying and becoming great wizards and he was lying on his old bed and waiting for Sirius' moodiness to end.

At the beginning he'd thought that Sirius seemed quite happy about his expulsion from school. At least he told Harry that an expulsion wasn't _that bad_, a lot of great wizards were expelled from school. Then he called Fudge a lot of opprobrious names and to tell him what he'd do if he'd meet him somewhere by accident. "... and you can be sure, if he'd ever manage to come back from that desert, I have a lot of other bright ideas what we could do with little Cornelius, for example..." At this point Lupin interrupted him and told Harry that he was very sorry that he was expelled and volunteered for telling Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon that Harry wouldn't come back for a little time. Harry just shrugged his shoulders.

He didn't care if the Dursleys knew about his expulsion or not – there wasn't a single chance that he'd live with them again. Uncle Vernon probably would be quiet happy if Harry wouldn't show up at King's Cross at the end of school year. He and Aunt Petunia would wait for fifteen minutes and then drive home.

"At least they will be happy", Harry thought grimly. For three weeks Sirius kept shutting himself away. He never ate at the same time Harry and the other members of the Order (mostly Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill and Lupin; but most of the time nobody from the Order stayed for dinner at Grimmauld Place) had dinner. Whenever Harry approached the door to Buckbeak's room he could hear Sirius talking quietly to the Hippogriff.

"I have not the slightest idea", Lupin had said when Harry asked him about Sirius' behaviour. "I have tried to talk to him, but he would never give a proper answer."

"_Maybe I should ask Sirius straight away if anything was wrong",_ Harry thought. He stood up and turned towards the door, but stopped as he heard a voice behind him.

"Where are you going, young Potter?"

Harry turned around and saw the painted eyes of Phineas Nigellus Black, Sirius' great-great-grandfather, looking at him. Harry had asked Dumbledore if he could hang up the portrait somewhere else but Dumbledore shook his head. _"His portrait is in this room for almost hundred years. I don't think he wants it to hang somewhere else", _he'd said.

"Why would you care?" asked Harry, aware of his rude tone of voice. But at the moment he didn't care at all.

"Dumbledore told me to have an eye on you. I never understood why you always seemed to be so special for him, but an order is an order. So stay where you are, Potter."

"Why should I listen to him?" Harry asked angrily. "I can't stay in this room for the rest of my life!"

"Indeed, that's true. But you can stay here for the moment. You are lucky that your wand wasn't destroyed. Stupid boy, always wants get his way."

"I never said that I had no luck, I just want to talk to Sirius."

"Ah, my great-great-grandson. Is he hiding somewhere in the house? I haven't seen him for a few days. Normally he violates my privacy because he wants me to deliver some messages to Dumbledore. The boy always was inconsequential."

"I don't care. I'm going now" Harry told Phineas and left the room. As he closed the door on his way out, he could hear Phineas' mumbling. _"...always thinks he got the brightest ideas. If he'd listen more often to the right people he wouldn't even be in this situation ... always told Dumbledore he shows too much mercy ..."_

Harry went to Buckbeak's room and knocked on the door. He waited for Sirius to either tell him to go away or to come in, but he couldn't hear anything. As he opened the door he could just see Buckbeak lying on the floor and staring at him angrily. Obviously he had woken up the Hippogriff.

"Sorry Buckbeak, I didn't know you are asleep", Harry said. "Have you seen Sirius? No?" Harry waited for the Hippogriff to do something, but Buckbeak just went back to sleep. _"Great, now I'm talking to Hippogriffs and waiting for them to answer me",_ Harry thought moodily.

He left the room and stood aimless in the corridor. During summertime Mrs. Weasley kept them busy with cleaning the house and furthermore he had Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Fred and George here whom he could talk to. But now it was just him, standing there alone in a creepy corridor.

He could hear Kreacher mumbling on the second floor and proceeded to go downstairs; he didn't want to meet Kreacher now. Dumbledore thought it would be the best if they kept him in the house und forbid him to leave Grimmauld Place and talk to other family members or Death Eaters. Both Sirius and Harry were not happy with his decision but Sirius was the only one who kept telling Dumbledore it would be better for everyone if Kreacher would just be beheaded.

As Harry entered the kitchen there was already somebody there. Tonks was sitting at the kitchen table, her hands clinging to a mug of tea. Her hair was mouse-grey, she had dark circles around her eyes and a forced smile on her face. All in all she looked a little worn out.

"Hey Harry", she said and forced her lips into something that probably should be a warm smile. "How's it going?"

"Hi, err... pretty good. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I just came back from a mission. I shouldn't go on missions after my regular work. I'm so t-t-tired", Tonks answered and yawned. Harry thought that she looked more than a little bit tired. Normally she used to wear her hair in a bright pink or purple, but now it had the colour of the dust on the kitchen cabinet.

"Have you seen Sirius?" Harry asked to change to topic.

"Nope, I'm sorry Harry. I just came back and found the house nearly empty. Only Remus was here, but he left a few minutes ago."

"_Lupin was here and he didn't even bother to say hello? Great",_ Harry thought and did his best to look as he wouldn't care. Instead he just said: "Oh".

"Yes, he was in a hurry", Tonks said and took a sip of her tea. "Oh, and you might be interested in the fact that the Tutshill Tornados won the game yesterday. The Wimbourne Wasps played really bad, they had no chance. Roderick Plumpton caught the Snitch in less than thirty minutes. What a great game."

"Did you see it?" asked Harry, now curious.

"No, I had to work at that time. But a fellow of mine saw it. Amazing game... i-it's nearly half past three again? Oh damn, I'm already fifteen minutes too late. Moody is going to kill me."

Tonks knocked a chair over as she stood up and hastily grabbed her coat on her way out. "Sorry Harry, I have to go. We'll talk another time, okay? Oh, Moody will bite my head off...", Tonks called.

"Okay", Harry said as Tonks closed the door a little bit too loud and Sirius' mother woke up. The next eleven minutes Harry was busy listening to Mrs. Blacks' cursing as he tried to draw the curtain over her portrait.

"At least", he said to himself, "somebody's talking to me."


	2. Chapter 2

During the next few weeks the time seemed to stand still for Harry. A year ago he imagined the life at Grimmauld Place would be exiting and thrilling – or at least a little bit more exciting than what he was experiencing at the moment. Everything seemed better than the life with the Dursleys but now Harry had his doubts about that. Back then at least there was always somebody in the house who'd talk to him every now and then.

The last visitors at Grimmauld Place showed up three days ago. Hestia Jones was the first one. She greeted Harry with a warm smile and took her time to talk to him, even though she seemed a little bit stressed. Just half an hour after her Mad-Eye Moody stomped through the door and (being his grumpy self) began ranting about the idiots in the Ministry.

They were sitting in the kitchen and listening to Moody's scolding while Hestia was busy making some tee.

"Oh, Mad-Eye! Stop it for a second. I don't want to hear just a single word about the work right now. It's enough. Here, take a sip of your tea and calm down", Hestia said and handed him a teacup with emblem of the Blacks.

Moody grunted in response and took the teacup. "I just wanted to make it clear", he said.

"I know, but this makes my headache just worse."

"I'm sorry, but that messy, under-qualified, idiotic, stu-"

"Mad-Eye!"

Hestia sat down and sighed. She took a sip of her tea and leaned back. "I'm really curious about the meeting this weekend. Dumbledore seemed a little bit tensed last time I spoke to him."

"He always looks tensed. Nothing curious about that", said a voice behind them. Hestia and Harry turned around and saw Sirius leaning against the wall, an odd smirk on his face.

"Because there's always a reason for him to be tensed, Sirius", said Hestia. "Times have changed."

"The good old days are over", agreed Sirius and began to walk around the table so he could sit down next to Mad-Eye, who held his cup of tea still in his hand. Harry thought to hear some sort of bitterness in Sirius' voice but both, Hestia and Mad-Eye, didn't notice. As Sirius sat down he sighed exaggeratedly. "When does the meeting take place?"

"Friday evening", muttered Moody.

"I think everybody's coming, except Tonks. She has to work."

There was a short silence before Hestia and Sirius began to discuss the article Andy Smudgley had written yesterday. Harry didn't pay attention to them. It was already Wednesday and if Dumbledore insisted that the meeting should take place this Friday it must be something important that he wanted the other members to know. Everybody, with the exception of Tonks, was coming. Harry felt betrayed. He thought after what happened in the Ministry of Magic this summer Dumbledore would accept to tell him a few secrets the Order was keeping. Or at least he thought that Dumbledore would inform him about the important stuff. But the old wizard was an infrequent visitor at Sirius' place so he didn't even had the chance to ask him anything.

He always asked Lupin a few things when he visited Grimmauld Place but he never answered his questions properly and kept knowledge close to the vest. So Harry soon gave up and just talked with him about unimportant stuff, like the weather in London, newspaper articles or the well-being of other members of the Order.

"I was wondering", said Harry and interrupted the discussion that was going on between Sirius and Hestia. "…if I could attend the meeting, too. I'd just sit in a corner and pretend I'm not there. So I wouldn't bother anybody."

He wasn't looking at them, afraid that he already knew the answer to his question. But he had to ask, there was no way that he was going to sit in his room and keep quiet forever, while Dumbledore was making decisions about him. He wanted to hear about everything that was going on right now. And he wanted to be heard.

Harry expected Moody to be the first one to say that it wasn't possible. Then Hestia would apologize and maybe she'd even suggest that he should talk to Dumbledore. He waited for Moody to talk but there was just awkward silence. Finally Sirius cleared his throat.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Harry."

Harry quickly looked up and caught Sirius' awkward expression on his face, before his godfather looked away. Sirius was the last one Harry had expected to say this. He was always willing to tell Harry about the plans and knowledge of the Order. Now he just stared at the wall to avoid Harry's gaze.

Harry wasn't listening when Hestia and Moody began to tell him that Dumbledore would be against that idea. He tried to remain calm and just nodded when Hestia said she had to go, her mother was waiting for her. Twenty minutes afterwards Moody announced he had to leave, too. Sirius stood up and said good bye to him.

Sirius, now being the only person in the room next to Harry, sat down again and proceeded to stare at the wall. _"Say something. Say something!" _a voice was shouting in Harry's head. He wanted Sirius' to just explain his opinion or to talk about something else, for Merlin's sake. _"Come on, say something. Don't you want to talk to me?"_

Sirius looked down and opened his mouth. He seemed unsure whether to talk or not.

"_Say something!"_

Sirius closed his mouth again. He was playing with his sleeves.

"_SAY SOMETHING!"_

Harry stood up furiously and stormed out of the kitchen. If Sirius didn't want to talk to him – fine. He wasn't going to force him. He entered his room and shut the door with a bang. Just a few seconds after the noise's echo was became silent he could hear Sirius mother's ranting and felt a little bit satisfied.

"We are a little bit angry, aren't we?"

Harry looked up to the portrait of Phineas Nigellus. "Shut up!" he hissed and lay down on his bed.

"This boy and his temper", Phineas was mumbling before he disappeared.

"_That's what you get! Now even the portrait won't talk to you either!"_ the voice in Harry's head said taunting.

"SHUT UP!"

Harry refused to leave his room the next two days till Friday. He felt betrayed and frustrated and he didn't want to see Sirius or anybody else. They treated him like he was just a little innocent kid who had no idea what was going on. _"They are mistaken about that!"_ Harry thought as he lay in his bed.

He had heard the noise of Sirius footsteps outside his room several times a day, but he never came in to speak to Harry. He always remained on the other side of the door. Maybe he just wanted to eavesdrop on Harry because he wanted to know what he was doing. After a few minutes Sirius went away and left Harry alone with his thoughts.

When Harry awoke on Friday morning he discovered that Hedwig had brought him a letter. _"The only good thing that'll happen to me today"_, Harry thought bitterly while he offered Hedwig a cracker. "It's from Ron", he told her and, as Hedwig nibbled at his finger, he added, "Sorry, I haven't got anything to eat. I'll get you something later, okay?"

He opened Ron's letter carefully.

_Dear Harry,_

_Hermione thought it's a bad idea to write you. At first she tried to convince me to follow Dumbledore's 'no-letters-for-Harry' rule but I think it's stupid. I mean, come on. He's rarely around in school. We tried to find out where he's going to but McGonagall won't tell us anything and it's impossible to get into his office._

_Sometimes we think it's good that you're not at Hogwarts anymore. You'd hate it here. Snape now teaches DADA, which is now the most hated subject of course. Not even Hermione has a chance to get some points for Gryffindor. We heard a rumor that Dumbledore wanted to get the old Potions teacher to come back to Hogwarts – but he refused. So he was forced to let Fudge send him somebody from the Ministry, who volunteered to be the new potions teacher. The guy is completely awkward. He looks like a toad, and he even smells like one. At least he's kind of neutral, so it's not as difficult to get points as back in Snape's days._

_We visited Hagrid yesterday (he won't tell us anything about Dumbledore, too. But he gets very nervous every time we ask him about that, so maybe he's going to prattle away if we keep asking). The Ministry refuses to let him get his 'harmless' creatures for his lessons, so he's forced to let everyone pet Flobberworms instead. He is a little bit frustrated._

_Oh, by the way, you are not the only one who hasn't come back to Hogwarts after the summer. Seamus' mother won't let him come back; she thinks it's too dangerous. Seamus told her about what happened in the Ministry and because she doesn't trust Dumbledore anyway (she believes the shit the Daily Prophet publishes) she forbid him to come back. It's the same with Hannah Abbot, Ernie Macmillan and the Patil twins. A lot of the younger ones were taken out of school by their parents, too. It's weird._

_I'm considering to drop out of school, too (just like Fred and George), but I think Mum'll bite my head off if she finds out. Hermione keeps telling me my plan's stupid, but I bet she doesn't mean it. _

_You can write us back, as far as we know they don't control the mail. _

_Best wishes, _

_Ron_

_P.S.: Harry, no matter what Ron says: please be careful what you write. I don't think that they open our letters, but we have to be careful with that. Dumbledore told us we shouldn't write you that often, but I think a few letters are okay. _

_Love, _

_Hermione_

Harry re-read the letter several times until he was sure that there wasn't a message hidden in the text. He sighed and fell onto his bed. Seamus and Parvati weren't allowed to be at Hogwarts either. He felt a little bit relieved; he wasn't the only one who couldn't go back.

Harry lay down. He was hungry, but fragments of Ron's letter kept wandering through his thoughts.

"…_He's rarely around in school…"_

If Dumbledore wasn't at Hogwarts what was he doing? He was sure that Dumbledore never visited Grimmauld Place in the last few weeks. So, where was he going to? It made no sense.

"…_Snape now teaches DADA, which is now the most hated subject of course…"_

Snape teaching DADA was the nightmare of all Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. He was sure the Slytherins on the contrary were excited about that. Why, for Merlin's sake, did Dumbledore let Snape teach DADA? Harry sighed.

He remained silent for a few minutes until he heard the wonderful noise of Sirius' mother's voice echoing through the house. Members of the Order must've arrived.

Harry got up and opened the door. He could hear the voices of Lupin, Sirius and Mad-Eye but they were talking very quietly, so he couldn't understand a single word. Slowly, so he wouldn't make noises, he walked to the beginning of the stairs, sat down and waited.

Kingsley was the next one to come, followed by Hestia Jones, McGonagall and Snape. After that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arrived with Bill and Fleur. Half an hour later the Order of the Phoenix was complete; all members sitting in the kitchen and waiting for Dumbledore to arrive. After twenty minutes the front door of Grimmauld Place opened gently and the old wizard entered the house.

"_Ah, everybody's here, I see",_ Harry heard him say and felt angry. He got up and went downstairs with the vague plan to eavesdrop at the kitchen door. _"Mad-Eye can see through doors, you moron!" _said the voice in his head and caused Harry to stop. Right, they'd catch him if he was dumb enough to position himself in front of the kitchen like a muggle.

After ten minutes Harry went upstairs again and sat down at the top of the stairs in front of his room. He wouldn't hear a lot of useful information up here, but at least he wasn't going to get caught. Harry sat there for hours playing with his sleeves or examining the portraits on the walls. Suddenly there was a noise downstairs: Doors were opened and closed, footsteps were mixed with soft murmurs of different people and somebody was coughing loudly. But just after a few seconds all the noises were gone and Harry found the house in silence again.

"_Time to go to bed", said the voice in his head. _

Harry sighed. "I think you're right."

He entered his room and put on his pajamas. _"I'll ask Sirius about the topic of the meeting. He has to tell me _something. _At least I hope so." _As he tried to fall asleep Harry thought he could hear Phineas Nigellus muttering something, but ignored the portrait. The former headmaster would have enough time to get on his nerves tomorrow.


End file.
